Understanding
the Difficult Words of Jesus.New
insights from a Hebraic perspective, by David Biven and Roy Blizzard, Jr.Austin, Texas: Center for Judaic-Christian
Studies, 1984.

Rigidly
literal translations of Hebrew idioms often give the Bible reader the wrong
impression.“Noah found grace in the
eyes of the LORD,” Genesis 6:8, simply means that God
was fond of and loved Noah.A little
boy thought God's right hand was completely useless because he had always heard
that Jesus was sitting on the right hand of
God!We are familiar with English
idioms such as “hit the ceiling,” and “kill time,” but few of us understand
Hebrew figures of speech.

In
their book, Understanding the Difficult
Words of Jesus, Biven and Blizzard show that understanding Biblical
Hebrew is a major key to interpretation of both Old and New Testaments.Literal translations of Hebrew idioms
sometimes don’t make sense, but once you understand the Hebrew, the passage
makes perfect sense.Especially in the
New Testament, attempting to understand the Greek often leads to a blind alley,
or even worse, a misinterpretation.A
Hebrew word often has a much wider meaning than its Greek or English literal
equivalent.

Over
half the book is devoted to proving what may be a shocking conclusion to
some:the gospels were originally
composed in Hebrew, then translated literally into Greek.Our English translations have been
translated from the Greek.Because the
Hebrew idioms are sometimes not clear when literally translated into Greek, and
then into English, difficulty and confusion have resulted.Hebrew, rather than Aramaic or Greek, is
shown by Biven and Blizzard to have been the main language of Palestinian Jews
during the time of Christ.

Among
the “difficult” sayings of Jesus are Luke 23:31, Matthew 11:12, and Luke
12:49-50.These are all Hebrew
expressions or idioms that can be understood if you know Hebrew.Also, understanding the Hebrew thought from
which the gospel was based, we would avoid theological errors due to mistranslation.For example,
Matthew 5:21 and 39 have wrongly been used to support pacifism.The Greek text of
Matthew 5:42 appears to say that we are bound to give without
discernment, that we are duty-bound to give material possessions to anyone that
asks us for them.However, the Hebrew
from which this is based does not support this erroneous view.

Understanding the Difficult Words of
Jesus is a fascinating and enlightening book.By understanding Hebrew expressions of speech, we gain a richer
understanding of Bible truths.However,
there are several dangers that could arise from the misuse of this book:

(1)The authors are too extreme in their
statement that “the key to an understanding of
the New Testament is a fluent knowledge of Hebrew and an intimate acquaintance
with Jewish history, culture, and Rabbinic Literature.”Bible truth is spiritually revealed by the
Almighty, and not through human intellect and scholarship.Nevertheless, we should diligently study the
Bible, and understanding Hebrew and Jewish culture can well be valuable tools
in broadening our understanding of the Almighty’s way.However, the Holy Spirit is the only real
teacher.

(2)
Some would tear down the veracity of the New Testament if they carry too far
the theory that the Life of Jesus was originally composed in Hebrew.Sacred Name proponents tend to do this.Even if the original record of the Life of
Christ was composed in Hebrew, that would not prove that we must always use the
Hebrew names for the Supreme Being.Nor
does it indicate that the Greek New Testament is not to be trusted.

The
fact is that the New Testament has not been preserved in Hebrew, but in
Greek.A better understanding of Hebrew
may indeed help us to understand the New Testament.After all, Jesus was a great Jewish rabbi, or teacher, and the
disciples were all Jews.Rather than
tearing down the inspiration of the New Testament, Understanding
the Difficult Words of Jesus actually confirms the authenticity of the
received Greek text.Writers such as
Luke (See Luke 1:1-4) had other written
material from which to draw, which may have been written in Hebrew.They carefully and literally reworked this
material, which has been delivered unto us.By under­standing Hebrew idioms, we can gain much knowledge of the
correct meaning of the words of our Savior.

Biblical Hebrew is closer to
modern Hebrew than King James English is to modern English.Studying Hebrew can help one better
understand both Old and New Testaments.Ω